Warning system test at Grangemouth petro-chemical plant

Scott McAngus

Residents in the Grangemouth area will receive a five-minute warning sound tomorrow evening as part of a safety check at the town’s petro-chemical plant.

The Grangemouth Petro-Chemical Complex Major Incident Control Committee (MICC) Community Warning System will be tested at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

The check is carried out to test the warning system residents would receive if toxic gases were accidentally released from the site, operated by Ineos, into the community or there was a major incident and people in the ‘blast zone’ had to be evacuated.

The test will consist of activating all 11 units simultaneously as an alert warning which is ‘a two-tone undulating sound’ for five minutes. This will be followed by a one minute interval and the all clear sound – a single continuous tone for five minutes.

The twice-yearly test checks the operating systems and monitor how the sound travels in varying weather conditions.

It also aims to maintain and improve the awareness level of Grangemouth’s residents and the necessary actions required if gases are released. Advice in a situation like that is to go indoors, stay in and tune in to different forms of media for information.

Residents are being told to familiarise themselves with the different warning tones and have their own arrangements for reacting to such an alert.